Saturday, January 27, 2007

I finished the first huck lace stole last night! Using the larger shuttle and memorizing the pattern really sped up the weaving, and I got into a good rhythm. I did 12.5 repeats of the pattern, hemstitched the end, and did all the finishing yesterday, in about 4 hours. Here it is still on the loom- I love the way a piece of weaving looks when the fabric is rolled onto the cloth beam. It looks so.... official and weaverish.

I decided to cut off the first stole before weaving the second and third, because I discovered two sleying errors that I want to correct. They aren't super noticeable, but they bug me enough that I want to correct them.

So I cut off the first stole, trimmed and twisted the fringe,

and wet finished it. I gave it an Orvus bath in the sink, then spun it out and rinsed it in the washing machine. I gave it a bit of gentle agitation during the rinse to make the yarn bloom. It dried overnight, I pressed it this morning, and voila!

Before and after:

The yarn poofed up and the lace areas are more defined. The wet finishing also smoothed out my sometimes uneven beat.

I love it. The fabric is so soft, and I like the huck lace pattern I designed. I'm looking forward to weaving the rest of this warp.

My selvedges still need work, though they improved the more I wove. I'll eventually get an end-feed shuttle, but for now I'll keep practicing. I was a little worried that 18.5 repeats would be too long (wasn't sure what the shrinkage would be after finishing), but I think it came out just right. It's a good length to wear. When I had it on for the pictures, I felt like I should be going to the symphony or something.